Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar has expressed concern over the BJP’s deviation from the politics of principles to the politics of power in his autobiography released this week, saying that he feels ashamed of seeing his party getting involved in the “sale-purchase” of legislators.

“The entire politics has almost gone astray. Nowadays, in order to obtain power and to humiliate opponents, riots are engineered, political leaders are bought and sold, and I do not know what else is done. If the BJP, the sole last ray of hope, also goes astray like the politics of the entire country, then what kind of a future will the country have?” asked Kumar in his book ‘Nij Path Ka Avichal Panthi’ which was released in Delhi on Tuesday.

He wrote that the BJP had once carved out its identity as an idealistic party, but it has now started making compromises due to the politics of power. The leaders of RSS would earlier ensure that the BJP did not deviate from its principles, but this guidance by the RSS is also fading away now, Kumar wrote.

He said in his book that the BJP is now “only and only a power-based party” and is getting involved in the buying and selling of MLAs. “I wonder leaders such as Deendayal Upadhyaya are probably shedding tears, wherever they may be,” he wrote.

However, Kumar added, the party today has a “golden chance” to change the country’s politics into value-based politics. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make laws ensuring that tainted persons are unable to contest elections and that black money is not used during elections.

He said that his life’s last wish is to see that the BJP steers clear of the “pollution of politics”, and remains committed to its values in order to realise the dreams of people such as Swami Vivekananda and Bhagat Singh.

Kumar, a resident of Palampur who served as the CM of Himachal twice from 1977 to 1980 and 1990 to 1992, has also authored a number of other books.